Tenants living in state-owned homes along the former 710 Freeway corridor are urging city officials to step in and purchase Caltrans properties themselves and sell them to the tenants.
In correspondence to the City Council, renters cited mounting obstacles in efforts to buy their residences through a state sales program.
The sale of 13 Caltrans properties will be discussed in closed session prior to Monday’s public meeting.
Tenant representatives and housing advocates outlined a series of concerns involving the administration of the 710 Corridor Sales Program, including disqualifications, escrow delays and disputes over pricing and property conditions.
“The pattern of confusion, delay, and unfairness towards tenant-purchasers threatens to result in unnecessary lawsuits, unnecessary displacements, and the wholesale shifting of costs and burdens on to tenant-purchasers,” the letter said.
Supporters are asking the City to use its purchasing priority under state regulations to acquire the homes directly and then resell them to current occupants.
Under the proposal, the city would enter memorandum agreements and double-escrow arrangements allowing Pasadena to purchase properties from Caltrans and transfer them to tenants at fair market value, minus repair costs.
Supporters say the plan could resolve cases involving both tenants who were disqualified but still seek to buy and those who remain eligible but cannot reach agreement with the state over valuations, repairs or inspection transparency.
The letter also recommends the city coordinate inspections and financing tools such as rehabilitation loans, which combine purchase and renovation costs into a single mortgage — a mechanism advocates say is critical given the aging condition of many properties.
Proponents argue the City would be better positioned than the state to complete sales equitably and efficiently and said any profits from market-rate transactions could be reinvested locally into housing rehabilitation or affordable housing initiatives tied to historic freeway displacement.
Advocates say residents have raised complaints with Caltrans, legislators and local officials, pointing to alleged wrongful disqualifications from eligibility, escrow timelines stretching up to seven years and disagreements tied to inspections and appraisals.
Many of the homes at issue were originally acquired by the state decades ago for the ill-fated extension of the 710 Freeway through Pasadena and neighboring communities.
Beginning in the mid-20th century, Caltrans assembled hundreds of properties along the proposed route through voluntary sales and eminent domain purchases intended to clear land for the highway project.
The freeway extension was never built after years of community opposition, legal challenges and environmental concerns, largely from South Pasadena residents, halted the plan.
Caltrans retained ownership of the properties and rented many of them to tenants for decades.
Later, state laws required the homes be sold, often granting occupants priority rights to purchase through corridor sales programs.
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